ICSC Spring Convention: Heard On The Floor

Here's what our editors and reporters unearthed and overheard among the 36,000 attendees at ICSC's Spring Convention on Tuesday in Las Vegas...

Attendees anticipating an announcement of the sale of San Diego-based developer Price Legacy were disappointed today as no buyer was revealed. Rumors are floating that either Cencor or Developers Diversified Realty and its partner Macquarie might be working on a deal to acquire the company, which owns 8.4 million square feet of commercial space...

Who wouldn't want to be a fly on the wall during a discussion between Joel Murphy of Cousins Properties and Yaromir Steiner of Steiner + Associates about lifestyle/town center developments? The two developers are known for their diverging interpretations of the open-air concept. "He thinks I'm nuts," Steiner said. "But in a good way."...

While buxom babes caused logjams at some company's booths, one exec sniffed, "We'd rather be recognized for our competency."...

How will Benderson Development, flush with cash from its recent sale of 18.8 million square feet to Developers Diversified, redeploy the $1 billion in proceeds back into retail properties? Odds are a lot of decisions are being made toward that goal this week. One show attendee speculated they might take the money and run...

The concept of cross-shopping at grocery-anchored centers might be played out, says Bill Gerrity of San Diego-based GMS Realty. During the recent grocery store workers' strike in California, anchor tenant Vons saw a steep decline in traffic as customers avoided crossing picket lines. But there was no corresponding drop-off among the in-line tenants at GMS' properties. "Does this mean any tenant in a well-located grocery-anchored center could perform just as well in a well-located standalone building without a grocery anchor?" Gerrity mused...

Rich Walter of Irvine, Calif.-based Faris Lee Investments says his firm is discouraging clients from pursuing free-standing credit tenant properties in isolated markets. "People are buying credits around the nation without thinking about the real estate," he said. "What will they have when their loan is paid off?" Walter recommends buying stores in dense markets only...

Avid cyclist John Bucksbaum of General Growth Properties is spending $1 million of his own money to build a bike path at the REIT's mammoth Jordan Creek Town Center development near Des Moines, Iowa, which is set to open next year...

Just yesterday, Texas-based Coyote Management closed on its purchase of Crossroads Center in Waterloo, Iowa. The 840,000-square-foot mall is anchored by Dillard's, Sears, JCPenney, Old Navy and Gordmans. The firm is aggressively seeking acquisitions sized 600,000 square feet and up in secondary markets...

Nordstrom will open news stores at General Growth Properties' Ala Moana Center in Honolulu and Natick Mall in Boston. The Ala Moana store will be completed by 2007...

Still no word on the name of Abercrombie & Fitch's highly anticipated new concept, known only as "Concept Four." Even the mall owners that have leased space for the new stores and Abercrombie's own real estate rep haven't been let in on the secret...

Kelly Whitman, a real estate economist with Property & Portfolio Research of Boston, said she's finally hearing that the U.S. has entered a "new era of cap rates," saying that they might soften a little bit, and that may be viewed as a "correction," but that retail was mispriced several years ago...

Michael P. Niemira, chief economist and director of research for ICSC, says U.S. real GDP growth is likely to remain on a 3.5 percent to 4 percent trend this year. Niemira also said the Fed is likely to raise the Fed Funds Rate by 25 basis points to 1.25 percent in June and is also likely to push the Fed Funds Rate up to 1.75 percent by the end of the year....

The Buxton Co., a marketing research and household demographics company based in Fort Worth, Texas, has signed a deal with Florida Hospital Healthcare to create retail profit centers, similar to the mall-like retail presentations in airports, in the ground-floor areas of 49 hospitals. "This could become the hospitals' largest profit center," says Tom Buxton, president of The Buxton Co. "It's the next big frontier for retail."...

Marcus & Millichap reports that the revenues from its retail division are up 45 percent year-to-date through April, and that revenues jumped 30 percent in calendar year 2003 over the previous year. Bernie Haddigan, director of M&M's national retail group, attributes the spike to the company's aggressive commitment to boosting its market share in a superheated retail investment sales climate...

Equity One plans to double the size of its grocery-anchored retail portfolio within the next three years by bulking up on acquisitions in the South. The REIT currently owns 21 million square feet encompassing 190 retail centers, primarily anchored by supermarkets. Is there enough product available for such an ambitious growth strategy? "The reality is that all REITs combined control barely 10 percent of inventory," says Chaim Katzman, CEO of Equity One, based in North Miami Beach, Fla. "I believe there is enough [product] for everybody to go around. Is there room for consolidation in the industry? Absolutely."